Another Flat-Footed Adventure: July 19, 2012

Day 34
Little Haven aka the Braaten's house
Belden, CA
Elev: 2300 ft
Miles: 21
Trip: 593

The idea of a hiker hostel is nothing new, but I am still in awe of anyone who opens their home to filthy, stinky strangers who wander in out of the wilderness. Brenda and Laurie Braaten are going way beyond paying back the kindness done to them as thru-hikers. They're true angels, especially in a town like Belden: a short stretch of store fronts and trailers, most of which looked unoccupied. It was honestly a little creepy. Yogi's PCT Guide tells us that in 2009 hikers reported raves every weekend, with loud music audible from the trail. I didn't see any evidence of that, although there were a lot of glo-sticks for sale in the general store...

Thankfully, all the worry yesterday about my shins handling the mile of downhill was unnecessary. My leg hurt more at the beginning of the day - barely a twinge on the way dawn though. And for a perfect end to a pleasant descent, Andrew was waiting at the railroad tracks of Belden, with Doritos and beer from the creepy little glo-stick store. Later, Easy Miles (a quiet lawyer who shared our swimming hole yesterday) noticed me icing my shin and offered to tape it with some futuristic-looking Kinesio tape. He had a long, brutal battle with shin splints and wanted to prevent pain in a fellow hiker. If this works, I'll be striping my leg with Leukotape and Kinesio for the next 1400 miles. But for now: on the post office for our packages and the store for a milkshake!

Shaggy says:

For the first time in over a month, me and Lauren are apart. Of course we take care of our bodily functions and what not alone. We sometimes hike for a ways alone too. But today we decided to go 7 miles by ourselves. There was a huge downhill, 4300 feet of loss in 7 miles. Right now Lauren's shin splints are really bothering her, causing her to stop often while hiking downhill. I have knee pain when I slow too much. So for 3 hours we hiked alone today. It felt good to hike my own pace but missed Lauren, strangely.
I went down to the Belden Town Resort while waiting for Lauren. What a strange place it was. I quickly bought some beer, Doritos, and walked back to where the trail came towards town.
I waited for Lauren and drank a couple beers. Felt good to be in the shade and relax with a beer. She showed up and I surprised her with beer and Doritos. Good stuff for both of us!
The Brattens of Belden are letting us camp at their hiker friendly house. Young Geezer, Easy Miles, Double Sprainbow, Itchy, Carpenter, Creeper, Hamburger, and Skeeter are here with us. Very relaxing atmosphere. Easy Miles helped Lauren tape her shin. Hopefully it will help her keep truckin. It was very nice of him.
The poison oak mentioned in our guides was not present on the decent into Belden. Instead we were greeted by blackberries at the bottom! Spotted a weasel on the decent as well. It rained this morning. Just as Lauren told Easy Miles that its not going to rain for a long, long time. The journal goes a long way back here. Spotted all my good friends from 2006, miss you all!
Time for rest.